Homegrown murder mystery company enjoying national success

The Murder Mystery Company, started by Kentwood-area resident Scott Cramton, began with performances at one venue in northwest Grand Rapids and now reaches 43 states.Supplied

BY TOM HAGAN

The notion of a murder mystery game likely dates back to the early '80s. It was a way for the wealthy to spend a Saturday night impressing their guests with elaborate dinner parties.

But Kentwood-area resident Scott Cramton—creator of The Murder Mystery Company—has successfully brought this idea affordably to the masses.

With 5,000 shows slated for 2013, his company performs even more shows than a New York stage production. The Murder Mystery Company has taken their show to 43 states, with 16 satellite branches (or acting troupes) throughout the country. And Cramton just learned that his company won the 2012 Rising Star Award as the top theme party company by GigMasters.com, an entertainment booking service.

“Nobody has ever done what we do, or how we do it,” Cramton said of his vast enterprise. “Sometimes people hug us after the show. We performed a birthday party for this sweet 70-year-old woman. And she told us of how she was dreading this particular birthday, how she just felt old. But that the show made her feel like a kid again.”

A Murder Mystery game is quite simple, really. Guests fill a hall or venue and it’s the audience’s job to figure out a whodunit. “It’s like a two-hour interactive game of Clue…but with 200 people,” Cramton said. “The audience works in table-teams to solve the crime. The scripts I’ve written for the show are ‘fair play,’ which means the ending has already been written.”

Everything else that happens during the show happens spontaneously due to audience participation.

“I really love what I’m doing now,” said Cramton. “I like breaking that wall, and making the audience part of the show.”

One of the first venues to host the Murder Mystery Company’s shows in Grand Rapids, Brann’s Sizzling Steaks & Sports Grille at 401 Leonard St. NW, still hosts their performances on weekends.

But the Murder Mystery Company also books many private events for gatherings like birthday parties, team-building exercises, and corporate events.

While Cramton’s life has been filled with recent success, that wasn’t always so for the creator of the Murder Mystery Company, who grew up in southeast Michigan. Cramton was born with a cleft palate and spent most of his first 10 or 12 years in and out of surgery. At one point, his doctors thought he would never speak properly. But his parents persisted, got Cramton the proper medical care and, with enough speech training, Cramton was able to overcome these obstacles.

“I was in speech lessons until I was 19 years old and nobody thought I would ever be able to perform in public speaking, let alone acting,” Cramton said. Cramton said his original intention, after attending GVSU, was to get a career in making movies. Instead, he found himself involved in the Grand Rapids spook house known as The Haunt.

In 2002, he was walking down the street when he ran into a friend from college who asked him if anybody was doing a murder mystery dinner game here in Grand Rapids. Nobody was – the opportunity was ripe for the endeavor.

Cramton worked at an Art Van furniture store while simultaneously putting together gigs for the soon-to-be company. Within a short period of time, they were performing hundreds of shows a year, then 1,000 shows, then 2,500. And soon the company grew beyond the boundaries of Grand Rapids.

“I never liked acting in theater because I never got the chance to interact with the audience,” Cramton said. “Now I’m doing it every night, and I love it. The interaction is the only thing that makes it worthwhile, the only thing that matters.”

More information about the Murder Mystery Company, is online at www.grimprov.com/Grand-Rapids-Dinner-Theater/